1. Field
Aspects of the present invention relate to heavy equipment for surface mine field loading operations such as human-operated and/or autonomous mining shovels, draglines, and the like, and more particularly to systems used on such equipment to actively measure the net weight of excavated material in each load.
2. Description of Related Art
In large scale surface mining operations, excavating equipment of immense proportions is used to excavate and load material. Excavation is usually performed by mining shovels with a bucket capacity of dozens of tons per scoop.
Measurement systems have been developed to determine the net weight of material in the mining shovel bucket as it is transferred to the truck. However, upon determining that the net weight of the load exceeds required weight, the excavation equipment may be forced to dump the excavated material, causing the increase of an excavation cycle time, creating a safety hazard and, thus, higher overall labor and maintenance costs.